Handsome Ransom
| Episode list = List of The Venture Bros. episodes | Prev= Blood of the Father, Heart of Steel | Next= Perchance to Dean }} "Handsome Ransom" is the 41st episode of The Venture Bros.. Plot The Monarch is holding Hank and Dean hostage and, fed up with never being able to kill Dr. Venture, demands a $10 million ransom. Superhero Captain Sunshine barges in and attacks the cocoon-lair, giving everyone sunburn on any exposed flesh, and flies the Monarch off to jail. The Monarch returns some time later after being released for lack of due process and finds that Captain Sunshine had returned and flew off with Hank. Monarch tells a surprisingly fit and able 21 to kill the cab driver who drove him home but 21 just pays the man and tells him to keep the transaction a secret. Captain Sunshine mistakes Hank for an orphan and hopes to replace his lost sidekick Wonderboy (technically, Wonderboy 3, the latest of the Captain's teenage sidekicks; brutally killed by the Monarch sometime towards the end of the first season) with Hank. Hank originally takes to the superhero lifestyle happily. Throughout the episode an inappropriate relationship between Sunshine and Wonderboy is implied. The assumptions are usually wrong as Captain Sunshine fails to realize what his relationship with Wonderboy looks like to others. Dr. Venture and Sgt. Hatred show up to pay the ransom, but the Monarch, unable to fulfill Guild policy of releasing all captives, lets Dean go. Dr. Venture is also unable to pay the ransom money so the Monarch pretends he still has Hank and takes an IOU. Dr. Venture calls Master Billy Quizboy and Pete White, who have just received a $10 million check after apparently defrauding an insurance company, to help out. Captain Sunshine meanwhile is acting overprotective towards Hank. He is immensely afraid of losing Wonderboy again and panics easily. It is revealed that he, as well as his old superhero team, works at night as an anchor for a local news channel. Dr. Venture attempts to con the Monarch out of the ransom by shrinking Hatred into the bag of money. The plan misfires when the Monarch runs off with the money and the shrink-ray fails to enlarge Hatred in time. Hatred then remains undercover and discovers where Hank really is, when Dr. Mrs. The Monarch tells the Monarch that he is now obligated to return Hank due to Guild rules. Both the Monarch and Dr. Venture track down Captain Sunshine's lair at night, when he is at work (Hosting the 11 o'clock news as "Chuck Scarsdale"). Hank successfully fends off The Monarch and a muscular #21 while Chuck Scarsdale sees the Monarch's flying cocoon at his home from a submitted news video. He panics, steals the station's news helicopter, and flies home. The Ventures then show up and hide as Captain Sunshine (still dressed as his alter ego) arrives. He quickly changes into costume as the Monarch falls into his "Sanctum Solarium" after falling through a chute that dressed him in Wonderboy's costume. The Monarch delivers verbal abuse about Wonderboy to Captain Sunshine, and ends the rant by revealing that he knows Captain Sunshine has no powers at night and uses a kind of 'sunlight ray-gun' on him, attempting to give Captain Sunshine nasty sunburns in retaliation to the ones he gave the Monarch and his henchmen. This inadvertently recharges Captain Sunshine's powers, who then defeats the Monarch and his henchmen, giving them even worse burns. After this, Hank realizes that Sunshine is using him to replace Wonderboy, and bids the hero a heartfelt goodbye. Though not before asking him to put in a good word to Batman for him, leading to an angry Captain Sunshine to yell "get out!". In the post credits sequence, Monarch once again has to take a cab home. When the cabbie demands money, The Monarch, off screen, shoots a dart that hits the cabbie in the neck. Cultural references * Captain Sunshine parodies both Batman and Superman simultaneously. There are numerous references in the show: ** Captain Sunshine is voiced by Kevin Conroy, who has voiced Batman in several animated programs and is generally recognized as the iconic voice for Batman by many fans. ** Captain Sunshine's home and lair employ elements similar to Bruce Wayne's mansion, the Batcave, and the Fortress of Solitude. McColluch also mentioned Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch when describing the mansion's design ** Captain Sunshine says "Well, you're not fighting a boy now!" and throws the Monarch at the wall. This is a reference to Action Comics #1 (the first appearance of Superman) when Superman says a similar line to a wife beating husband and throws him. ** The way Captain Sunshine flies with Hank is nearly identical to the way Superman flies with Lois Lane on their date in Superman: The Movie. ** Captain Sunshine keeps a giant penny that the Monarch used in an attempt to kill him. The Batcave contains a giant penny that Batman took as a trophy after defeating Penny Plunderer, and Two-Face also attempted to crush Batman with a giant penny. ** Captain Sunshine's alter ego Chuck Scarsdale is a journalist (television news anchor), similar to Clark Kent (a newspaper reporter). ** The memorial for Wonderboy III contains the quote "So Long, Old Chum". Adam West's Batman routinely referred to Robin as "old chum". ** Captain Sunshine's sidekick is named Wonderboy, Batman's sidekick is often referred to as the Boy Wonder. ** Captain Sunshine has a British butler named Desmond, a reference to Batman's Alfred Pennyworth. ** One of Captain Sunshine's villains remarks that he would like to tie Hank to a giant typewriter; Batman has had multiple run-ins with a giant typewriter. ** As Captain Sunshine is attacking Scorpio, Hank exclaims "Holy beating that guy's head in!" "Holy...!" is a common phrase of Robin's. ** While trying to gain access to Captain Sunshine's home, Pete White claims to be "billionaire playboy Bruce White". Batman's true identity is that of billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne. He also refers to Billy Quizboy as his "ward" - in his various incarnations, Batman's sidekick Robin is Bruce Wayne's ward (and often described as such). Coincidentally, Batman's sidekick Robin was played by Burt Ward on the 1960s television show. ** Like Superman, Captain Sunshine finds a source of strength from exposure to sunlight. He also rises into the air like another 1960's super hero, Birdman. Birdman was also the titular character of another Adult Swim show, Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law. ** When the Monarch blasts Captain Sunshine with the ray gun, an explanatory narration similar to Ted Knight's and William Woodson's work on Super Friends is heard. ** When Hank confesses to Captain Sunshine he is not an orphan, Captain Sunshine asks if he lied about working at the circus too. This is most likely a reference to Robin, The Boy Wonder, who worked with his family of acrobats before becoming Robin. ** The death of Wonder Boy at the hands of The Monarch is similar to the death of Jason Todd, the second Robin, who was murdered by the Joker. There is a memorial to Jason in the Batcave, much like there is a memorial outside Captain Sunshine's mansion. ** The Radiation Cannon used by the Monarch as a weapon is visually based around the Phantom Zone projector used by Superman as a last resort against foes. * U.S. Steel resembles Uncle Sam from the Freedom Fighters * Captain Sunshine's "Sanctum Solarium" is presumably a reference to Doctor Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum. Its crystalline nature hints at many interpretations of Superman's Fortress of Solitude. *Captain Sunshine's pedophilia is a reference to Fredric Wertham's Seduction of the Innocent, which labeled comic books as the source of juvenile delinquency, in which the author suggested the existence of such a relationship between Batman and Robin when making his case. *The Copter 5 commercial is a reference to a commercial for WNBC's infamous Chopper 4.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6Vf8Z2B-z0 *The superhero team that calls Captain Sunshine resembles the Freedom Fighters. *Before firing his Radiation Ray, The Monarch tells Captain Sunshine that he is about to have "funtime eating sunshine on a stick!" This is a reference to a Time for Timer PSA from the 80s, referring to orange juice cubes. *When Captain Sunshine kisses Hank on the lips and says "You broke my heart!" it was a reference to a scene in The Godfather Part II, when Michael Corleone found out his brother had tried to have him killed. Connections to other episodes * It is mentioned in "Return to Spider-Skull Island" that the Monarch had #21 and #24 send the "charred remains of Wonderboy to his beloved Captain Sunshine". The Monarch blames his breakup with Dr. Girlfriend and the resulting drinking problem for his "slaying" of Wonder Boy. * Dr. Venture's Shrink Ray makes its third appearance in the show: the first being in "Tag Sale – You're It!" and the second being "Escape to the House of Mummies Part II". The device is mentioned but not shown in the season 3 finale "The Family That Slays Together, Stays Together (Part II)", as Sgt. Hatred reveals he tried to commit suicide unsuccessfully using the shrink ray, leaving him with a shrunken "baby tongue." * Captain Sunshine spares The Monarch a beating upon the first encounter, saying that he knows he is invulnerable. This is in reference to "Shadowman 9: In the Cradle of Destiny", where The Monarch regales Dr. Girlfriend and Truckules with a tale in which he duped Captain Sunshine into believing this. * Sergeant Hatred implies that his alcoholism was a key factor for Princess Tinyfeet leaving him. * Hatred's supposedly cured pedophilia is implied at when he learns that Master Billy Quizboy is 37-years-old. The Office of Secret Intelligence administered a shot that was supposed to rid of it in "Blood of the Father, Heart of Steel". * The Sea Captain mentions that Jonas Jr. is building Gargantua-2. The space station Gargantua-1 crashed in "Guess Who's Coming to State Dinner?". * At the end of the episode, Hank asks if Captain Sunshine can give him a reference for Batman. Hank has displayed a Batman obsession throughout the series. * In Shadowman 9: In the Cradle of Destiny, henchmen can be seen rolling another giant penny with the Monarch's face on it from the wreckage of the cocoon. Production notes *One of the animation directors (Kimson Albert) gets to have a nickname inserted into his credits. For "Handsome Ransom" the credit reads Kimson "Copter 5" Albert. References Category:The Venture Bros. episodes